Despite massive selling by foreign investors, the KSE-100 index on Wednesday gained 22.97 points and closed at 11,300.99 points on the back of interest of local investors and institutions in some select stocks.
Foreign investors remained on the selling side and withdrew $3.65 million from the equity market. After positive opening the index hit 11,353.10 points intra-day high. However, selling in some other stocks forced the index into negative zone at 11,272.23 points intra-day low level.
Trading remained low and the volume at ready counter was recorded tao34.960 million shares as compared to 41.084 million shares traded on Tuesday. Market capitalisation increased by Rs 5 billion to Rs 2.930 trillion. Of 304 active stocks, 106 closed in negative and 102 in positive, while the values of 96 stocks remained unchanged.
Engro Corp was the volume leader with 3.711 million shares. However, it lost Rs 1.06 to close at Rs 104.03. In the other fertiliser sector stocks, Fatima Fertiliser declined by Re 0.30 to close at Rs 22.10 with 3.256 million shares while Fauji Fertiliser Co and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim increased by Rs 4.62 and Re 0.39 to close at Rs 156.79 and Rs 48.31 with 2.011 million shares and 1.154 million shares respectively.
In the banking sector, NBP lost Re 0.87 to close at Rs 40.49 with 2.281 million shares while NIB Bank gained Re 0.02 to close at Rs 1.35 with 0.943 million shares.
NML increased by Rs 1.34 to close at Rs 41.43 with 2.116 million shares. Lotte Pakistan PTA lost Re 0.24 to close at Rs 9.03 with 1.489 million shares. Attock Refinery declined by Rs 1.43 to close at Rs 111.08 with 1.247 million shares. TRG Pakistan lost Re 0.07 to close at Rs 1.23 with 1.095 million shares.
Attock Petroleum and Al Ghazi Tractors were highest gainers by Rs 13.12 and Rs 8.43 to close at Rs 422.98 and Rs 200.81 respectively, while Nestle Pakistan and Unilever Pak were worst losers by Rs 82.79 and Rs 9.91 to close at Rs 2314.00 and Rs 5406.67 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Investments said that the stocks showed recovery amid low trading volume at KSE. The institutional interest in oversold fertiliser and oil stocks, strong corporate earnings outlook played a catalyst role in positive close at KSE despite concerns for uncertain Pak-US relations, he said.
"Uncertainty in global stocks affected the investor sentiment despite record overseas remittances in July-November '11 of $5.24 billion reported by SBP on Tuesday", he said. "However, institutional interest in some select stocks supported the index to close in positive", he added.